The present invention relates in general to time locks, and more particularly to plural movement time locks for vaults, safes and other security containers.
Heretofore, time locks have been in common, widespread use to place bank vaults and similar safes, security spaces, and the like in a lock-out condition rendering them disabled from being opened in the normal way by bank personnel, as by proper dialing of a combination lock, during certain chosen times, such as between the bank closing time one day and its opening time the next day. In recent years, these time locks have customarily involved a box or case having two or three timer units or clockwork movements, to provide back-up redundancy in case one or two of the timer units fail, each of which has a settable dial graduated in hours and set from a key insertable into openings in the time lock case to indicate the desire locking hours or time lapse between setting of the timer and the time of opening of the vault the next working day. Each timer unit or movement customarily has a main spring and gear system to concurrently wind the main drive spring for the clockwork mechanism and drive the dial in a wind-up or increasing time lapse direction relative to a stationary pointer or index mark, and the dial usually has a trip pin or stub fixed on the dial face to engage an abutment surface on the end of a rigid arm extending from a movable carrier when the associated timer unit dial times out to zero time and move the carrier to a release position allowing a snubber bar connected in the usual manner to the bolts for the vault door, as by connection to a common control bar for the bolts, to retract to unlocking position. The carrier typically has three of such rigid arms extending to abutment ends located at the zero time positions for the trip pins of each of the three dials of the three timer units, so that any one of the three trip pins when it engages the abutment end surface of the associated extension arm of the carrier will push the carrier toward its release position by the force of the stored energy in the associated main drive spring to unlock the time lock.
Today, more and more security containers require time locks, to protect against hold-ups, minimize internal compromise by those knowledgeable of the safe combination or having access to the safe during non business hours, or in the case of home security container to provide additional protection during normal periods away from home. With the increased sophistocation of safe and burgular resistant designs, bolt-work and security re-lockers take up more room on a vault door or security closure, so that little room remains for a large three movement time lock of the type customarily used for vaults and large safes.
An object of the present invention is the provision of a time lock of reduced size which will take up considerably smaller space than the conventional three movement time lock and will fit virtually any security container, and which will be capable of being mounted in a number of different positions to make it applicable to a wide variety of security container situations.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a novel two movement time lock for use on bank vaults and safes and a wide variety of other security containers, which has a quick mount modular design for low installation costs and will work on all types of doors, and which is virtually immune to vibration and impact attack and can operate in any position.
Yet another object of the present invention is the provision of a novel two movement time lock as described in the two immediately preceding paragraphs wherein a snap on housing cover is provided to facilitate ease of installation, with a mounting screw arrangement which is concentric, facilitating installation in mounting such as not to require left or right orientation when using a template for mounting, and wherein shock resistant and shock absorbent features are provided including resilient mounting components and geometry of the components is such as to minimize adverse vibration effects on the lock.
Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention.